The coldest day of the year, more to follow, and some pretty sky shots

 Yesterday was the coldest day of the year. If I remember correctly the temperature never got above zero degrees F.

This was a screen shot I grabbed yesterday, after being roused before my alarm and being told the Northern Lights were going. 

My gosh, they were SO pretty. There were flashes in the sky, like lightening.

When they weren't dancing across the sky. 

If it wasn't so bitterly cold I would have been out there longer than the two to three minutes I was.  It took a bit to warm back up once I stepped back in to the house. My husband shot these photos. 

Today was better, temperature-wise.

Today was also my first day back to work after taking a week off.  In what has become a recurring theme, I was using up vacation time before I lose it. Next month is my work anniversary.  This year will mark my 23rd year at the paper. 

Not much to say about work.  Work was work. Though there were more emails than I was expecting.

I checked the book of faces just a bit ago.  This is one of the local news sites. 

Yes, the blasted cold (no pun intended.) I had heard the digital whispers about the cold arriving this week. I didn't want to think about it just yet.  Then someone messaged me, asking if I was in the area where there is the "exploding trees" warning.  

Turns out I *am* in that area. I've heard trees pop from the severe cold, when I'm out in the back 20, sitting in a hunting blind.  It does catch you by surprise.  To see them write "Exploding trees," however, paints a different picture in my mind's eye, and it does give me a bit of concern about just how quick the temperature is supposed to drop tonite. 

But, as I told a coworker today, I'd rather the cold than more snow. You don't have to move cold. The last round of having to move snow made some muscles very unhappy and I'm just now starting to feel better. 

Earlier in the month Becca of SambrieStitches held a giveaway over on her Instagram account. I won and the prizes were received in the mail yesterday. 

It was so much fun to win these from Becca.  She included some stickers and you know me and stickers.  I saw the one and thought "Hmmm, I wonder if that will fit in to a cabochon."

It almost did. I did have to trim a part off the image, which was a bummer. 

Now when I work on one of the charts I have from her I will have a thread charm (Floss bling? I can never remember) to go on the floss ring. 

The light is hitting it in such a way that it looks like a spill on there.  I promise that is not what it looks like in real life. 

Recently I started watching "Supernatural." I'm moving through the series pretty slow. I'm still in season one. 

Tonite I saw an episode and had to pause the show and look it up.  The storyline was about a family and the whole vibe reminded me of that one X-files episode with the mom and the sons.  You know the one. If it was like that then I was going to stop watching this particular episode.

Anywho, the family wasn't like that.  They just *really* liked hunting. A lot. ... 

But what really got me was the wikipedia description of that episode. 

Set in contemporary Hibbing, Minnesota? Are you freaking kidding me? Nu uh.  Nope.  That is false information. If that is what they think Hibbing is like, they haven't been there. 

Ahem. ... and that is my rant for the day. 

I don't know what the rest of these week will hold.  Probably not much, since we'll be bracing for cold and exploding trees. 

Somehow, I feel that since we are expecting trees to be exploding all over the place it won't happen. 

I'll just keep working on my snapping turtle project. I took a break from the shell section and decided to work on the tail a bit.